We know that this is a stressful time for everyone and we don’t want to add any extra stress to teachers or students; however, we do hope that when the time is right, teachers can use our Facebook page to express their interest in connecting with teachers in other countries and learn about different ways that cities around the world are working alongside children to create inclusive child friendly spaces.
As our internship comes to a close we have to say goodbye to that aspect, but we hope that our modules and information collected is used by the amazing teachers out there. Who know’s our pilot project could surprise us and we may be able to match more than two teachers. But for now we will have to say See you later, not goodbye, because we hope to be back connecting teachers.
We just have to take a slight pause as we finish our degrees and have a little fun over the summer. We hope that you play, share and create with the modules we have built. You can even share them with parents so they could have a fun and engaging activity to do over the summer.
If you do use and modify the modules we would love it if you could use the hashtag #creatingyouthchangemakers when sharing photos of the curriculum so other teachers can see the ways they have been adapted. We do ask that all children’s faces be blurred or not included to protect their safety when sharing photos.
– Stephanie, Missy, & Cas
Today we had the pleasure of speaking to a number of faculty, staff, department heads, and the Dean of Science at the University of the Fraser Valley, along with other interns who have also been navigating the virtual world this term.
It was great to hear about all goals that were accomplished this term despite the challenges we have all faced. Its been one heck of a ride but we have all learned so much, gained valuable work experience, and created some amazing work that meets the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.
Our overall goal for this internship was to assist in creating a more sustainable, child friendly Chandigarh. A city that offers its most vulnerable citizens with quality education, equality for all, and improvement of the overall health and wellbeing of citizens by promoting childrenâs participation in the urban design and planning processes in a way that honors their rights to participate and be heard as outlined in the UN Convention on the rights of the Child.
Overall, this internship has been an excellent and rewarding experience, albeit the limitations and challenges we faced as a result of it being entirely virtual. All three of us agreed that we entered this internship with a solid understanding or idea of what we were going to achieve or gain through this experience, and yet it evolved into something completely different but just as rewarding for us. It has been a unique experience and an opportunity we are all extremely glad to have been apart of.
– Missy, Stephanie, Casandra
We hope that as teachers begin to use the modules and share with each other they gain a classroom partnership. This could look different for every teacher. Perhaps you collaborate and change up the base modules we have made, or you integrate part of that country/city/community’s culture or teachings into it. The possibilities can be endless if you let your minds be creative.
If you do modify and add to the modules we have we would love it if you are sharing photos of the adaptations without any children’s faces, that you use the hashtag #creatingyouthchangemakers so other teachers can see what you have done. I know that as we have created our modules we have researched and looked at lots of curriculum that other teachers have made to give us inspiration.
– Stephanie, Cas, & Missy
If you have been hanging around our neck of the woods over the past few months or you have stopped by and read a few of the posts on our little blog here, you may be wondering âwhat do they do between meetings, building curriculum and writing blog posts?â Well do not worry, I am here today to share a bit about what happens behind the scenes or what we refer to as the âin between stuff.â
Over the past few months, much of our time has been spent meeting on Zoom or in person (when possible, and always following the latest Covid 19 rules) where we have diligently brainstormed, planned, and developed various aspects of curriculum to connect teachers and students in Chandigarh, India and Abbotsford, British Columbia. Building these curriculum modules and working on developing this pilot project has been a unique and eye-opening experience for us three; both as interns and hopeful future Teacher Education candidates. Again, you might be asking, âyeah but what about the âother stuffâ?â or âdonât most university internships require students to travel to the country they are researching?â and the truth is that yes had this been an internship that was not impacted by the Covid-19 the three of us would have all GLEEFULLY hopped on that plane and visited the research team in Chandigarh. The in-person experience would have been an incredible asset for us in developing these curriculum modules and would have helped aide us in navigating the pilot project that evolved but circumstances we could not control forced us to get creative and gain knowledge in other ways.
We began exploring other avenues in which we could gain access to knowledge about childrenâs rights, child-friendly cities, the right to play and of course to learn more about Chandigarh and India in general. Over the course of the past few months, we have attended several webinars from all over the world (we even attended webinars in the middle of the night), listened to various pod casts, watched a couple documentaries and of course done a ton of library research. Over the past few months our âin between stuffâ has been devoted to research, research, and more research. To some this may sound boring but to us three it has been fascinating and of course it has helped us design some of our curriculum modules. As our internship is drawing to a close, we are tirelessly working to annotate all the articles we have discovered, so we can share them with the research team in Chandigarh, and of course we will share them here on the blog for anyone who is interested in learning about all the different areas this internship allowed us to explore.
Someday soon the three of us hope to visit India, meet the research team we have connected with over the past few months, and see how our efforts over these past few months have helped make Chandigarh a more child-friendly city. But in the meantime, you will likely find us listening to a pod cast, while sipping a tea (or coffee!) with a stack of new research articles and our trusty highlighters somewhere close by.
– Cas
This week I have been working on creating some activities that will help support teachers as they introduce children to the very important topic of human rights and equality. As the children work through these activities they will be able to demonstrate their understanding of equality, human dignity and justice.
If you are wondering what human rights has to do with this internship then keep reading…
Children have the right to their opinions in all matters that affect them; however, this right is often overlooked by municipalities when it comes to urban design and planning. We want to encourage children to start using their voice and be urban designers because its their right! Since we are working to help cities become more child friendly, it is imperative that we bring up this rather sensitive topic. Helping children learn their rights and responsibilities and those of their cities/ governments will help begin the process of bridging the gap between policies and reality.
We want to help children find their voice and begin creating a more collaborative approach to designing cities that includes their participation. This is part of the reason why we decided the rebrand of our project was necessary. We want to facilitate the creation of youth changemakers in communities across the globe.
– Missy
If you have been staying up to date with everything that we have been doing then you will notice that our site looks a little different today. Thats because we are switching it from just our adventure, challenges, and internship journey to a platform that we hope can connect teachers from all around the world.
So today we say goodbye to “Building the future through a child’s eye” that has encompassed our journey in this internship. It has been a stepping stone into something we hope is bigger.
And we look to what is next on the horizon with a re-brand to “Youth as Urban Designers” because the youth of the world can be the biggest change influence towards our cities. We need to open the doors to let all voices be heard, because in reality the world we are changing is not one that we will be living in the longest.
“You must be the change you wish to see in the world”
– Gandhi
– Stephanie
A couple weeks ago, Steph, Missy and I met up at a local school ground in the Fraser Valley to brainstorm, plan, develop and trial another one of our curriculum modules. It was a beautiful day here in the lower mainland and we left the park after a long day of planning feeling both content about where we were in this process and energized for the weeks ahead.
This module was so much fun! The idea is to build a park/playground out of recycled material. In the weeks leading up to this meeting, we all collected recycled products from our households, and brought them to the park where we were meeting. We also brought scissors, string, markers, glue, a stapler and a few other materials. We spent some time brainstorming ideas and then got to work in designing our playground. We looked to the school playground we were situated beside for some ideas and structural guidance.
We spent the rest of the morning and afternoon constructing a playground out of recycled materials. IT WAS SO MUCH FUN!!! The entire time we were designing this playground we shared what was working and what was not. We discussed what we would do differently to ensure all students could participate and how we would utilize this lesson plan in our own classrooms one day.
If I am being completely honest the day had an almost magical feel to it. The weather was glorious and us ladies shared, connected, created, laughed, and dreamed over the deconstruction of empty toilet paper rolls and cardboard cereal boxes. We spent hours creating beside a playground outside of a school where we were gently reminded that we are on the right path. One day soon we all hope to be creating both inside and outside of the classroom with little learners all around.
You can view pictures from our curriculum development that day and the final playground we created below. If you are interested in learning more about the curriculum we have been discussing over the past few weeks be sure to check out our curriculum modules!
– Cas
We have been working on creating a community mapping activity that will be used as part of the research survey in Chandigarh, India and it is finally complete!
The goal of creating this activity was to try to get children engaged in the survey in a way that would not only assist in building the children’s geography and mapping skills, but would also be an interactive activity. It is intended to help gather information about how children view their respective communities, and to identify areas that are in need of improvement as well as learn more about what is working in the children’s neighborhoods.
This activity was designed in a way that it could be used in any city and we hope our partners at the Punjab University will find this activity helpful to their research efforts. We hope that this will prove to be an inclusive and accessible educational experience that all students can participate fully and feel supported in as their full potential unfolds.
You can view this activity under the Presentation menu to the left of the screen.
Please feel free to leave a comment below with your thoughts on this outreach activity.
We attended a webinar this past week and learned about a lot of really great initiatives for building child friendly cities and one of the tools that was talked about was a project called Block by Block where children use the Minecraft game to visualize and engage in neighborhood mapping. This initiative sparked an idea for us – I have two boys who are seven and ten who love to play Minecraft; so, I decided to start creating a lesson plan and test it out at home with my children.
They have begun to work together to map our neighborhood. We are starting by mapping the houses, parks, roads, greenspaces, etc.; once they finish this they will begin to engage in an activity where they will be asked to think about the spaces and identify areas that could be improved and to then create a child friendly and inclusive space that they think will improve the quality of life for our community.
It is a work in progress, but its a really fun activity and a great way to get kids engaged in community planning while doing something they love – like playing Minecraft!
Check back for updates on how we are progressing through this activity.
– Missy
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